Chuck Grassley and Orrin Hatch reveal how quickly the Brett Kavanaugh nomination is slipping away from them

| 9:01 pm EDT September 22, 2018
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Three hours ago, just before the deadline that Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, and the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee had imposed on her, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford replied and confirmed that she’ll testify against Brett Kavanaugh next week. However, she did not agree to a specific date, and she stated that she intends to continue negotiating the terms of her testimony right up until it happens. In response, the Republicans have revealed that this nomination is slipping away from them by the day – literally.

One of the big sticking points had been that Senate Republicans wanted Dr. Ford to testify on Monday, while she was pushing for Thursday. Why would a difference of three days matter? After all, the midterm elections aren’t for another another 45 days. That became a bit more clear when the Republicans on the committee countered by asking her to testify on Wednesday. Again, she’s been asking for Thursday. We’re now literally talking about a difference of one day.

The only plausible explanation at this point is that the Republican Senate leadership can read polling numbers as well as anyone. Various major approval ratings polls show that Brett Kavanaugh has lost a few points of support just in the past few days. He’s now the most unpopular Supreme Court nominee in the history of polling, and it’s reasonable to expect that with each passing day, he’ll become even more unpopular [Update: The GOP has caved yet again, and Ford will testify on Thursday].

The pessimists of the Resistance are continuing to yell that “the GOP will ram Kavanaugh through no matter what.” Well, that’s what the GOP leadership would like to do. But they just revealed that they’re afraid of Dr. Ford pushing her testimony back by one day from Wednesday to Thursday, for fear Kavanaugh will become even more toxically unpopular by then. People like Grassley and Orrin Hatch are afraid that by the time they advance Kavanaugh out of committee, he’ll have become too radioactive for the swing vote Republicans to want to bet their careers on him in the full Senate vote.